al jazeera. where. you're watching al-jazeera and these are live pictures from capitol hill in washington d.c. where the public impeachment hearing against the u.s. president to set to resume in the next few minutes it is widely expected to be an explosive 2nd week of testimony from 9 witnesses donald trump is accused of pressuring ukraine into digging up dirt on his political rival joe biden well let's take a look at the 4 officials who testified on tuesday jennifer williams a foreign service aide to vice president mike pence she's listened to president

donald trump's ukraine phone call and i said it struck her as inappropriate which will be testifying alongside left and could alexander vandeman who also heard the phone call at the center of the inquiry and a little later in the day the committees will hear from could volcker that's the former u.s. special envoy for ukraine and he's denied participating in any effort to dig up political dirt on joe biden and the national security council's former official in charge of overseeing russia and europe policy will also give evidence to morrison had told investigators that he had concerns over trump allegedly withholding u.s. aid to ukraine to force an investigation into biden we'll speak to our white house correspondent kimberly hellcat shortly but 1st let's go to heidi show castrato she's joining us live from capitol hill and democrats will be hoping heidi that this quartet can flesh out the story so far. that's right particularly this morning's witnesses elizabeth we're looking at 2 national security experts on

ukraine who were both listening to that july phone call in which president trump asked the president of ukraine to open investigations on trump's political adversaries in the u.s. and alexander vin min who works in the white house on the national security council he said that he was concerned by the call and he immediately reported it to national security council attorneys jennifer williams who works in the vice president's office said she thought the call was inappropriate and unusual and those characterizations of the call have earned both of these witnesses the ire of president trump was attacked both on twitter as never trumper as without offering any evidence that's particularly problematic as other republicans have come to the defense of colonel then men who served the u.s. army was a wounded veteran from iraq and who had fled persecution in the soviet union when he was a young child with his family so these are 2 individuals who democrats will try to

prop up as sympathetic and compelling witnesses to tell the story to the american public however the hurdle that democrats face as they try to build this case to appease president trump is much higher they have to connect that trump they making the case that trump withheld security aid to ukraine with the purpose of using it as leverage to get those investigations into his rivals and to answer that question they're looking at the witnesses in the afternoon kurt volker in particular he is the former special envoy to ukraine who in previous testimony behind closed doors had said he did not perceive this aide withholding to be linked to the investigations it will be interesting though to see what he says today because in that time since he 1st gave his closed door testimonies. we've heard from many other witnesses who have implicated volcker more in the shadow channel that trump.

was running through his private attorney rudy giuliani so it'll be interesting to see whether volcker's testimony evolves today or whether he'll continue to be the defender of trump that republicans are hoping to count on and heidi where do we stand now off to the 1st week of public hearings and going into the 2nd week. well so far schedule wise this is the final week of public hearings that we are aware of next week is coming up the thanksgiving holiday in the united states and it's likely house investigators have signaled that they are going to take a break from these public areas next week also giving the committee members the chance to consider this evidence that we've seen developed over the last few weeks and perhaps draft articles of impeachment perhaps of the vote to impeach the president before the end of this year after that then all bets are off exactly

what's going to happen in the senate which as you know elizabeth is the body that would be voting to convict or acquit the president we know republicans control the senate and at this point it appears that there's little reason for them to defect from their still very popular trump in the polls in order to vote to remove him from office heidi thank you for that finale that is highly koster live in washington d.c. let's bring in our white house correspondent committee hellcat she's also joining us live from washington so what is the mood at the white house committee with so many officials testifying on tuesday. yeah well the mood is according to the press secretary stephanie gresham who's just tweeted that the focus is on the president's domestic agenda what they're trying to do is make the argument that well there is this sort of political distraction if you will on capitol hill that the president is working for the american people now the president himself has been largely quiet

on social media which is unusual you often on big news days tries to control the media narrative we do expect him to speak potentially later on well these proceedings are taking place on capitol hill from the cabinet room it's sort of hit or miss whether or not he'll top but typically if he sees these things not going the way he would like he tries to react in real time and that got the president into a little bit of trouble last week because as you'll recall during the one of the witness testimonies on friday the president tweeted opening himself up to the criticism that he was not only doing witness intimidation but potentially witness tampering further potentially building the case for articles of impeachment many people say this was ill advised still the president seems to march to the beat of his own drum so we're watching very carefully to see what he does moving forward the other big aspect in all of this is that the president on monday suggested he might even testify now this is certainly striking given that no other sitting

president in modern history has ever testified before a congressional inquiry now the president has not said definitively we've certainly seen in the past in another inquiry into his his presidency the moeller investigation that the president went to great lengths to avoid testifying aventure turning over answers to questions to the department of justice in written form so watching very carefully to see what more the president might say about testifying and whether or not he will try to interfere in the proceedings as he did on friday . and kimberly as we wait for this you know this hearing to begin we're watching pictures now of the chairman of the house intelligence committee adam schiff i think we've also seen pictures of. alexander vandeman so that's what's happening today but we also have to keep in mind you know the looming testimony from the u.s. ambassador to the e.u.

gordon so on the that is coming up i believe on wednesday there's david holmes coming up on thursday so this is just the beginning of what is going to be a very busy and interesting week in the u.s. capitol yeah potentially the headlines of the impeachment inquiry are going to come in the next few hours given the fact that well the republicans tried to make the case last week that these witnesses that were speaking were largely 2nd and 3rd even 4th hand information that there was hearsay well that's going to be a little bit more difficult this time around because many of these officials are going to be administration officials who are going to say they had direct knowledge that they heard this 1st hand that's going to make it more difficult for republicans to kind of bat back some of the criticisms that are coming out against the president the democrats continue to build their case towards impeaching this president but there is something that's really important to notice in all of this and that is the rift between kind of the career bureaucracy that exists in

washington today i'm sorry i'm going to interrupt you because adam schiff the chairman of the house intelligence committee is now starting to speak so let's listen in the committee at any time there is a quorum freshened. we will proceed today in the same fashion as our 1st hearing i'll make an opening statement and then ranking member nunez will have the opportunity to make a statement and we will turn to our witnesses for their opening statements and then to questions for audience members we welcome you and respect your interest in being here in turn we ask for your respect as we proceed with today's hearing it is the intention the committee to proceed without disruptions as chairman i'll take all necessary and appropriate steps to maintain order and ensure that the committee is run in accordance with house rules and house resolution 660 with that i now recognize myself to give an opening statement in the impeachment inquiry into donald trump the 45th president of the united states last week we heard from 3

experienced diplomats testified about president trump scheme to condition official acts a white house meeting and hundreds of millions of dollars of u.s. military aid to fight the russians on a deliverable by the new ukrainian president selenski to politically motivated vesta geisha means that trump believed would help his reelection campaign one of those investigations involve the bidens and the other involved a discredited conspiracy theory that ukraine and not russia was responsible for interfering in our twenty's 16 election as a master song and would later tell career foreign service officer david holmes immediately after speaking to the president trump did not give a he then used an expletive about ukraine he cares about big stuff that benefits the president like the bite investigation that giuliani was pushing to press a foreign leader to announce an investigation into his political rival president

trump put his own personal and political interests above those of the nation he undermined our military and diplomatic support for a key ally and undercut u.s. anti corruption efforts in ukraine. how could our diplomats urge you crane to refrain from political investigations of its own citizens if the president of the united states was urging ukraine to engage in precisely the same kind of corrupt and political investigations of one of our own citizens at the white house career professionals became concerned that president trump through an irregular channel that involved his acting chief of staff mick mulvaney even bastard gordon silent and rudy giuliani was pushing a policy towards ukraine at odds with the national interest this morning we hear from 2 of the national security professionals who became aware of those efforts to turn it colonel alex than men whose family fred oppression in the soviet union when

he was a toddler is a career army officer an iraq war veteran it was awarded a purple heart and an expert in russia and ukraine who has worked at the highest levels of the pentagon in july 28th and he was detailed to the white house in part to coordinate policy on ukraine jennifer williams is a career foreign service officer who is currently detailed to the office of the vice president and responsible for europe and eurasia related issues following is an issue and congratulatory phone call with ukrainian president selenski on april 21st president trump asked vice president pence to represent him at zelinsky s upcoming inauguration ms williams was working on a just 6 for the trip and would be a coveted attendee 2nd in significance only to the president and would have sent an important signal of support to the new ukrainian president in early may however rudy giuliani had been planning to go to ukraine to pursue the president's interest

in having the bidens investigated but had to call off the trip after it became public. among others giuliani blamed people around zelinsky for having to cancel and claimed that they were antagonistic to trump 3 days later the president called off the vice president's attendance at zelinsky inauguration instead a lower level delegation was named energy secretary rick perry ambassador sohn and a baster kurt volker the 3 amigos senator ron johnson and lieutenant colonel of inman would also attend. as was alinsky they urged trump to meet with the ukrainian president but trump instead criticize ukraine and instructed them to work with judy root work with rootie a few weeks later on july 10th and basta sonnen met at the white house with

a group of u.s. and ukrainian officials including colonel van men and form the group that according to chief of staff will veiny the white house meeting sought by the ukrainian president would trump what happened if ukraine undertook certain investigations national security adviser bolton abruptly ended the meeting and said afterwards that he would not be part of whatever drug deal song and will veiny are cooking up on this undeterred the song that brought the ukrainian delegation downstairs to another part of the white house and was more explicit according to witnesses ukraine needed to investigate the bidens or bryza if they were to get a white house meeting with trump after this discussion which women witnessed he went to the national security council's top lawyer to report the matter then was told to return in the future with any concerns. he would soon find the need to do so a week later on july 18th the representative the office of management and budget announced on a video conference call that move amy at trump's direction was freezing nearly 400000000

in military assistance to ukraine which was appropriate by congress and enjoyed the support of the entirety of the u.s. national security establishment and one week after that trump would have the now infamous july 25th phone call was alinsky during that call from complain that the u.s. relationship with ukraine had not been reciprocal later zelinsky thanks trump for his support in the area of defense and says that ukraine was ready to purchase more javelins an anti-tank weapon that was among the most important deterrence of further russian military action trumps immediate response i would like you to do us a favor though something requested that selenski investigate the discredited 2016 conspiracy theory and even more ominously look into the bidens neither was part of the official preparatory material for the call but they were in donald trump's personal interest and in the interest of his 2020 reelection campaign and ukraine

the president knew about both in advance because sonnen and others have been pressing ukraine for weeks about investigations into the 2016 election or ism and the bidens of colonel van and his williams were on the july 25th call when men testify that due to the unequal bargaining position of the 2 leaders and ukraine's dependency on the us the favor trump asked of selenski was really a demand after the call multiple individuals including vin men were concerned enough to report it to the national security council's top lawyer it was the 2nd time in 2 weeks at women had raised concerns with n.s.c. lawyers for her part williams also believe that asking zelinsky to undertake these political investigations was inappropriate. and that might explain something else that she'd become aware of the otherwise inexplicable hold on u.s. military assistance to ukraine both colonel denman and ms williams also took note

of the explicit use of the word charisma wise alinsky in fact conspicuously left out of the record of the call now locked away on an ultra secure server kernel them and believe that selenski must have been prepped for the call to be able to make the connection between biden and the fact that other witnesses have now confirmed in the weeks that fall of the july 25th call colonel van men continued to push for a release of the military aid to ukraine and startled to learn why it was being withheld more disturbing word of the hold it had reached ukrainian officials prior to its becoming public by mid august ukrainian deputy ambassador asked of inman why the united states was withholding the aid of the women didn't have an answer someone made it explicit to ukrainians at a meeting in warsaw they needed to publicly commit to these 2 investigations if they hope to get the aid there's williams we all saw the president's tweet about

you on sunday afternoon and the insults he hurled at ambassador you have on its last friday you were here today and the american people are grateful for november and we have seen far more scurrilous attacks on your character and watched as certain personalities on fox of question your loyalty i know that you have shed blood for america and we owe you an immense debt of gratitude i hope no one on this committee will become part of those attacks today's witnesses like those who testified last week are here because they were subpoenaed to appear not because they are for or against impeachment that question is for congress not the fact witnesses if the president abused his power. and invited foreign interference in our elections if he sought to condition coerce extort or bribe an ally into conducting investigations to aid his reelection campaign and did so by withholding official acts white house meeting or hundreds of millions of dollars of needed

military aid it will be up to us to decide whether those acts are compatible with the office of the presidency and i recognize ranking member noon as for any remarks he'd like to make thank you gentlemen i'd like to address a few brief words to the american people watching at home if you watched the impeachment hearings last week you may have noticed a disconnect between what you actually saw and the mainstream media accounts describing you saw you diplomats who disliked president trumps ukraine policy discussing secondhand and thirdhand conversation about their objections with the trump policy meanwhile they admitted they had not talked to the president about these matters and they were unable to identify any crime or impeachable offense the president committed what you read in the press were accounts of shocking damning

and explosive testimony that fully supports the democrats' accusations if these accounts have a familiar ring it's because this is the same purpose reporting the media offered for 3 years on the russian hoax on a nearly daily basis the top news outlets in america reported breathlessly on the newest bombshell revelations showing that president trump and everyone surrounding him were russian agents it really wasn't long ago that we were reading these headlines from c.n.n. congress investigating russian investment fund with ties to trump officials this was false new york times trump campaign aides had repeated contacts with russian intelligence also false slate. it was a trump server communicating with russia this was false new york magazine will trump be meeting with his counterpart or his handler this was false the

guardian metaphor held secret talks with the ecuadorian embassy also false buzz feed president trump directed his attorney to lie to congress about the moscow tower project all of these were false there was no objectivity or fairness in the media's russia stories just as a fevered rush to tarnish and remove a president who refuses to pretend that the media are something different from what they really are puppets of the democratic party with their bias mis reporting on the russian hoax the media lost confidence of millions of americans and because they refused to acknowledge how badly they botched the story they've learned no lessons and simply expect americans will believe them as they tried to stoke yet another partisan frenzy in previous hearings i've outlined 3 questions the

democrats and the media don't want asked or answered and said of shedding light on these crucial questions the media are trying to smother and dismiss them as questions start with what is the full extent of the democrats' prior coordination with the whistleblower and who else did the whistleblower coordinate this effort with the media have fully accepted the democrat stunning reversal on the need for the whistleblower to testified to this committee when the democrats were insisting on his testimony the media wanted it to but things have changed since it became clear that whistleblower would have to answer problematic questions that include these what was the full extent of the whistleblowers prior coordination with chairmanship his staff and any other people he cooperated with while preparing the complaint. one of the whistleblowers political biases and connections to democratic

politicians how does the whistleblower explain the in accuracies in the complaint what contact with the whistleblower have with the media which appears to be ongoing one of the sources of the whistleblowers information who else did he talk to and was the whistleblower prohibited by law from receiving or conveying any of that information the media have joined the democrats in dismissing the importance of cross-examining this crucial witness now that the whistleblower has successfully kickstarted impeachment has disappeared from the story as if the democrats put the whistleblower in their own witness protection program my 2nd question what was the full extent of ukraine's election meddling against the truck campaign in these depositions and hearings republicans have cited numerous indications of ukraine meddling in the 2016 elections to oppose the trump campaign many of these

instances were reported including the posting of many primary source documents by veteran investigative journalist john solomon since the democrats switch from russia to ukraine for their impeachment crusade solomon's reporting on brie sma hunter biden and ukraine election meddling has become inconvenient for the democratic narrative and so the media is furiously smearing and libeling solomon in fact the publication the hill told that staff yesterday it would conduct a review of solomon's ukraine reporting coincidently the decision comes just 3 days after a democrat on this committee told the hill writer that she would stop speaking to the hill because it had run solomon's stories and she urged the writer to relay her concerns to hill's management so now that solomon's reporting is

a problem for the democrats it's a problem for the media as well. like to submit for the record john solomon's oct 31st story entitled to bunking some of ukraine's scandal miss about biden and election interference i encourage viewers today to read this story and draw your own conclusions about the evidence solomon has gathered as you know his consent that we put this in the record mr chair objection the concerted campaign by the media to discredit and disown some of their own colleagues is shocking and we see it again in the sudden denunciations of new york times reporter khin vogel as a conspiracy theorist after he covered similar issues including a 2017 politico piece entitled ukrainian efforts to sabotage trump

backfire my 3rd question why did brees mohajir hunter biden what did he do for them and did his position affect any u.s. government actions under the obama administration we have now heard testimony from the democrats own witnesses that diplomats were concerned about a conflict of interest involving hunter biden that's because he had security well paid position despite having no qualifications on the board of a corrupt ukrainian company while his father was a vice president charged with overseeing ukrainian issues after trying out several different accusations against president trump the democrats have recently settled on bribery according to widespread reports they replaced their quid pro quo allegation because it wasn't polling well but if the democrats in the media are suddenly so deeply concerned about bribery you would

think they would take some interest in brie smith pain hunter biden $83000.00 a month. and you think they would be interested in joe biden threatening to withhold u.s. loan guarantees unless the ukrainians fired a prosecutor who was investigating. that would be a textbook example of bribery the media of course are free to act as democrat puppets and they're free to lurch from the russian hoax to the ukraine hoax at the direction of their puppet masters but they cannot reasonably expect to do so without alienating half the country who voted for the president they're trying to expel americans have learned to recognize fake news when they see it and if the mainstream press won't give it to them straight they'll go elsewhere to find it which is exactly what the american people are doing that i yield back

i think the gentleman today we are joined by lieutenant colonel and jennifer williams lieutenant colonel alex alexander of inman is an active duty military officer who joined the army after college and serve multiple tours overseas serving in south korea germany and iraq he was deployed to iraq at a time of heavy fighting and was awarded a purple heart after being wounded by a roadside bomb since 2008 colonel than men has served as a foreign area officer specializing in your asia serving both at home and in u.s. embassies embassies in ukraine and russia he has served as a political military affairs officer for russia for the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff he joined the trump administration in july 28th seen when he was asked to serve on the national security council jennifer williams began her career in government service in 2005 shortly after graduating from college when she joined

the department of homeland security as a political appointee during the george w. bush administration and after working as a field representative on the 2004 bush cheney presidential campaign. she joined the foreign service the following year completing tours in jamaica beirut and lebanon prior to joining the office of the vice president she served at the us embassy in london as a public affairs officer in april 29th team ms williams was detailed to the office of the vice president mike pence where she serves as a special advisor on his foreign policy team covering europe and russia issues in that capacity she keeps the vice president to where foreign policy issues in europe and russia and prepares them for foreign policy engagements and meetings with foreign leaders to final points before witnesses are sworn 1st witness depositions as part of this inquiry were unclassified in nature and all open hearings will also be held at the unclassified level and the information that may touch on classified

information will be addressed separately 2nd congress will not tolerate any reprisal threat of reprisal or attempt to retaliate against any u.s. government official for testifying before congress including you or any of your colleagues if you would both please rise and raise your right hand i will begin by swearing un do you swear or affirm that the testimony you are about to give is the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god let the record show the witnesses have answered in the affirmative thank you and you may be seated the microphones are sensitive so please speak directly into them without objection your written statement will be made part of the record with that ms williams you are now recognized for your opening statement and when you are concluded to turn to colonel van man you are recognized immediately thereafter for your opening statement was williams thank you chairman sheth ranking member nunez and other

members of the committee for the opportunity to provide the statement i appeared today pursuant to subpoena and i'm prepared to answer your questions to the best of my ability i have had the privilege of working as a foreign service officer for nearly 14 years working for 3 different presidential administrations 2 republican and one democratic. i joined the state department in 2006 after serving in the department of homeland security under secretary michael chertoff it was with great pride and conviction that i swore an oath to uphold and defend the constitution and ministered by a personal hero of mine former secretary of state condoleezza rice as a career officer i am committed to serving the american people and advancing american interests abroad in support of the president's foreign policy objectives i have been inspired and encouraged in that journey by the thousands of other dedicated public servants who i'm proud to call colleagues across the foreign service civil service military and federal law enforcement agencies i have

served overseas tourists in kingston jamaica beirut lebanon and london united kingdom i have worked to implement humanitarian assistance programs to serve millions of victims of the syria conflict and served as an advisor on middle east issues to the deputy secretary of state and this spring it was the greatest honor of my career to be asked to serve as a special adviser to the vice president for europe and russia over the past 8 months i have been privileged to work with the dedicated and capable men and women of the office of the vice president to advance the administration's agenda i have also worked closely with talented and committed colleagues at the national security council state department department of defense and other agencies to advance and promote u.s. foreign policy objectives in this capacity i have advised and prepared the vice president for engagements related to ukraine as you are aware on november 7th i

appeared before the committee for a closed door deposition pursuant to a subpoena i would like to take this opportunity to briefly summarize my my recollection of some of the events i expect the committee may ask me about on april 21st the lenski one the ukrainian presidential election. on april 23rd the vice president called to congratulate president elect selenski during the call which i participated in the vice president accepted an invitation to attend president elect selenski upcoming inauguration providing that the scheduling worked out the vice president had only a narrow window of availability at the end of may and the ukrainian parliament would not meet to set a date for the inauguration until after may 14th as a result we did not expect to know whether the vice president would be could attend until may 14th at the earliest and we made only a preliminary to.